As if it weren’t exciting enough that tonight’s scheduled to bring another appearance by me on PJTV (making predictions about 2009, along with Will Wilkinson, which should be viewable anytime after 7pm Eastern or so), I notice an ad has been running for the Jean-Paul Gaultier perfume Ma Dame, and the fashion transformation it depicts — combining high-fashion and punk sensibilities, wrapped in capitalism — leads inexorably to a dialectical synthesis akin to New Wave, and thus to a place close to this ostensibly conservative/punk blog’s heart.
Incidentally, the model in the ad has done spots for Burberry and numerous other products. Apparently, she lives in NYC, was voted the Most Annoying Person of 2008 in a BBC poll, and is engaged to a Stroke (is it proper to use the singular?). Despite her made-up name, Agyness Deyn, suggested to her by her family numerologist, she’s from Manchester, England.
Speaking of New Wave-like things and overly-skinny blonde women: while it crosses my mind, I notice a song by that Swedish band the Sounds, who I’ve repeatedly praised in the past couple years (especially for “Seven Days a Week”), can be heard, for good or ill, in that recent Geico cavemen ad in which the cavemen stride away from hot chicks in slow motion after getting off their motorcycles (“don’t want to hurt you…”). Ah, global culture!
I know a fabulous babe who likes her culture local, thick, and rich with tradition, though, so I’ll now wisely give the real last word in this Month of Feminism to my girlfriend, specifically to her obit for Bettie Page — but when next we meet, it’s on to January 2009, this blog’s “Month of Liberty (i.e., Property).”
3 comments:
the best thing about that ad is the cover of indochine’s 3e sexe – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKBvsbxdWRE . the original would’ve been better, but i’m forever stuck in 80s european pop.
Actually, I think that cover is a pretty impressive improvement, similar in spirit to three of my favorite covers of all time (of songs by White Stripes, Clash, and Joy Division, respectively), _especially_ the third one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDU2EXsW9tA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBsPiYOAgc0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4efME9Vnlc
[...] I saw a huge poster of model Agyness Deyn in a clothing store this week — and that’s hardly unusual, but her British-raised New Wave tendencies are somewhat unusual at this late juncture in history (though growing less so in the past couple years, which is nice). A few months ago, I praised a super-cool perfume ad she was in as something that’s sort of an example (like much New Wave) of “conservatism for punks” in at least the shallow aesthetic sense, combining traditional notions of class and beauty with an obvious punk influence, like many of the good things in life. [...]
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